Doctors from the New England say a lack of services in their region had forced sick cancer patients to drive more than 3.5 hours to Newcastle for "something as simple as a PET scan", or to sign a consent form.

It comes as all eight mayors of the New England Joint Organisation of councils (NEJO) voted to investigate resurrecting the old Hunter and New England Health Districts. The Hunter New England Health district covers public health services from Newcastle to Tenterfield, near the Queensland border.

Tamworth nephrologist and general physician Dr Stephen May said he had been concerned rural interests would come a distant second to metropolitan areas when the districts combined in 2005.

"I think the system is big and cumbersome and it's not particularly reactive," he said. "It's very slow to our needs, it serves the people of the Hunter region fairly well, but I don't think it's good for the rural sector."

Dr May said a painfully slow administrative system had seen anaesthetists and neurologists who wanted to live and work in the New England move to other areas because contracts took too long to process in Newcastle.

He said the region's lack of services meant cancer patients were left to drive to Newcastle for simple procedures, or to sign consent forms.

Despite the area's desperate need for medical staff, Dr May said more nurse practitioners had been dished out to the Hunter region, while the New England struggled to recruit.

A Hunter New England Health spokeswoman said untangling the system would come at a hefty cost.

"There would be significant costs to replicate services and management positions that were merged in the amalgamation," she said. "The amalgamation of HNEH in 2005 led to a reinvestment into improving frontline clinical care, particularly in rural and regional areas."

Retired GP Dr Lyn Allen worked as a practitioner in Tamworth when the health districts were separate, and said they never should have amalgamated in the first place.

"It was a bad idea to do what they did," she said.

"Amalgamation happened in a hurry, but breaking stuff up takes so long - I guess they thought they would save on admin, but really all I think they did was neglect the rural areas.

"The problem will be funding now that it's in a big pot, but maybe if we stood on our own two feet we would have a better chance of attracting specialists."

A senior Hunter clinician said while he sympathised with his New England colleagues, there had been times they had felt the administration had been "too distracted" by problems at small country hospitals to address some big issues in Newcastle.

"I don't think the current arrangement is perfect, but I don't think splitting it would be perfect either," he said. "Unless you're absolutely sure you're going to achieve something, it's just shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic."

Newcastle lawyer Catherine Henry, who gave evidence at the NSW Upper House rural and regional health and hospital services inquiry, said in her experience of running medical negligence cases in both areas of the health district, people suffered as a result of mistakes made by people because of a lack of resources; more health dollars needed to be allocated to regional, rural and remote areas.

Regional and rural patients had access to Newcastle's major hospitals which provided specialist care and outreach.

HNEH is the only organisation in the state that serves a large metropolitan base in Newcastle and an extensive rural area.

Discussions continue between NEJO, which consists of the Armidale, Glen Innes Severn, Inverell, Tenterfield, Uralla, Moree Plains and Narrabri councils and Namoi Unlimited, which represents Tamworth and other councils in the north-west.

Namoi Unlimited chair Jamie Chaffey said he felt the two groups could negotiate on behalf of the region to get the best health outcomes.

However, Minister for Regional Health and Mental Health Bronnie Taylor has made it clear she has no plans to change the structure.

IN THE NEWS:

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: